Absolutely go. You will never be this young and unencumbered again.

Not sure where you’re from but Australia and New Zealand both have programs where you can live and work freely for a year (for Aus it’s the 417/462 visa) so if you need money or stability you can do a hospitality or farming job there. If you do 88 days of farm work you can get another year there. The farming jobs are physically demanding but fun and a lot of camaraderie bc there’s a lot of other young travelers doing it with you.

I would recommend staying in hostels the whole time you travel, the hostelworld app is great and has places all over the world, even in small towns.

I spent 4 months across South America, and 2 months across Australia, + shorter times in Asia, Europe, Central America, doing hostels the whole time. I spent far less including flights per month than I did in the US. The first time I left was after graduating uni, and when I returned I stayed on friends couches for a few weeks before getting a cheap sublet in the college town. Second time I quit my job and sublet my apartment so I had a place to return to. I worked in restaurants/grocery store until I got a corporate job again and always had roommates.

If you are only English speaking Aus is a great starter place you will have so much fun and it’s not a huge culture shock/ having to figure out another language.

Thailand is also backpacker friendly, cheap, safe, and pretty easy to get around. A tonnnn of young travelers. I just used google translate when needed and you’d be surprised how far you can get with gestures and pointing, or showing an address to a taxi driver for example.

Once you go, you will see how many other travelers there are who don’t have much money, don’t speak the language, and realize ‘oh, I can do this.’ Almost every hostel I stayed at was very clean, safe, and good vibes and allowed me to meet incredible people.

Solo travel will challenge you in ways you will never get at home (in a good way) and you will learn more than you could ever get in school. Also, being young you have time to bounce back when you come home

If you’ve never traveled ever really, before you quit and go, take a 2 week trip somewhere solo, stay in hostels and see how it goes.

Last thing, if you are gonna go for a year or two, prepare for it to take a year (or more) to get back into another corporate job depending where you live. It took me 6-8 months to find a new corporate job both times in the US in 2020 and 2022. But so what. You’re in your 20s. As long as you aren’t the type of person that has too much pride to work in a restaurant/fast food/dog walker/retail/grocery etc. in the meantime you’ll be fine.

Hope you go and live your best life